Last month, I wrote about SWOT analysis and the importance of doing one for your Online Business. As you know, the 'W' stands for "weaknesses", and I believe it's the most important point to examine - mostly because it tends to get glossed over.

It's incredibly easy to mentally rebut any weaknesses that your mind (or customer) throws at you, discarding points that are highly valuable and should be considered. While the intention of the SWOT exercise is not to mentally bash yourself into manic depression, it is important to be brutally honest with yourself. You need to send yourself to weakness bootcamp and get your perceptions into shape.

Reasons and Excuses

Have you ever been explaining yourself to your boss/spouse, only to have them cut you off with: "I don't want to hear your excuses"? Naturally you think to yourself: "they're not excuses, they're reasons!" Reasons that you're late, reasons you forgot their birthday, reasons you missed that deadline. Reasons to you, sure.. but they're excuses to the listener.

When examining your weaknesses, you need to think of every reason as an excuse.

Being Harsh

Not many people in your life who would be willing to spend some time to help you identify your business weaknesses would also be willing to be completely honest with you. Some might call it tough love, and in a business sense that's exactly what you need. So if you're not going to get it from someone else - you gotta give it to yourself. Give yourself no excuses and don't be afraid of being harsh.

Now... Brainstorm. Go Go Go!

Put on some happy music. Eat an ice cream. Smile from ear to ear. And then write down everything negative you've ever thought about your business. Everything you've heard from customers, friends, family. Everything you've ever even imagined that perhaps someone might have thought. Hold nothing back, pull no punches, let it fly!

I don't recommend you spend too long doing this; it can get quite depressing. In fact it probably should be a bit of a downer if you really care about your business and you're doing the exercise properly.

Other Sources of Honest Feedback

The best feedback you can ever get is from your own customers. Surveys, customer feedback forms, emails and letters, face to face dialogue - all of these forms of feedback are incredibly valuable. It can be as simple as asking a customer you've just served - "How are we doing? Were you happy with our service today?" Soliciting feedback from customers is the best way to get feedback you never would have thought of yourself.

Sifting the Truth

By now you'll have a large list of negative things about your business. They may be real or imagined, fair criticism or unfair attacks. Which means that now you have to whittle it back to the real and the fair, so that you know what needs action. Thankfully, there's a few tactics to doing this accurately and objectively.

1. Ask a friend.
This is different to asking for feedback. If you express the flaw and say: "do you agree?" then they're not going to shy away as much as they might if you asked them to express the opinion themselves.

2. Can you say the opposite is true?
This is a nice test of the objectivity of someone's criticism. If you can say that the statement is true and it's opposite is also true, you may be dealing with a subjective truth. This doesn't mean you should ignore the criticism; it simply means you should weigh up how common each side of the equation is.

3. Leave it for a while.
Leave your list of unhappy thoughts and come back to it the next day. A fresh mind can look at feedback with a new perspective, and a little thought and sleep can do wonders for clear thought.

4. Ask your customers.
This is easily the best method. Using a structured survey (Likert Scale, anyone?) is the best way to find out of the customers agree with your feedback. Of course, you will need to transform each criticism into a reasonably objective statement. Then you can use a Likert scale on a survey to ascertain your customers sentiment. Very objective, very effective - but a little time consuming. If you have enough customers though, it's worth it.

5. Write a rebuttal.
Don't agree with a point? Write a rebuttal for it - explain why it's wrong, give clear reasoning and examples. Pretend you're justifying yourself to someone else, trying to convince them that you're right. This method forces you to examine exactly why you don't agree in a structured and logical manner. Once you're done, leave your rebuttal and examine it a few days later, or show a friend - did you convince them?

There is one drawback to writing a rebuttal - you can't argue with your customers. If they think it's wrong, it's probably wrong, and most of them will walk away without even expressing their thoughts to you. So always think in terms of first impressions, and never rely on an explanation - just use the rebuttal as a way to examine the issue at hand.

And then...?

Collecting honest and valid feedback about your business is important, but understanding your weaknesses is pivotal in strengthening and growing your business. It's all about taking a good, hard look in the mirror and identifying the areas in which you can improve. As you dig deeper, you'll realize that it's not a painless process - but at the end of the day, your adjusted perceptions and new found understanding of your business will help you set more realistic targets and better develop winnning strategies.

So you're taking your business online for the first time, or simply overhauling your existing Online Business to keep those customers flooding back. It's easy to rush straight in, write pages worth of content and slap a design together - but there's no guarantee that it will achieve the goals you set out to achieve.

That's where SWOT comes in. A SWOT analysis helps you determine your internal Strengths and Weaknesses, taking into consideration the external Opportunities and Threats that may impact on your Online Business. Think of it as an internal/external audit - once you've taken a 360 degree snapshot of your site and what's happening online, you'll be able to leverage your strengths, improve on your weaknesses, and keep a keen eye on what's going on in the industry you're competing for clicks in.

Strengths & Weaknesses

To put it simply, Strengths are the things your site is currently doing that help you achieve your primary objective. For example, a user intuitive checkout process for your Online Shop may help you achieve higher sales, with less people abandoning their cart at the halfway point. On the other hand, a poorly designed checkout is a Weakness, hampering your business efforts. Check the shopping cart "Abandon Rate" in your eCommerce analytics section to gain an understanding of how far people are progressing with their purchases.

Here are some more ways to discover what you're doing well, and what you are not:

• Compare entry and exit page metrics to determine the path customers take when browing your site. If you are seeing the front page as the most popular entry and exit page combined with low traffic to certain sections of your site, you may not be effectively encouraging click throughs from the home page. Try placing big, noticable calls to action on the page, or excite them with some professional copy
• Look at your email newsletter sign up statistics to determine how many customers are opting in for your email marketing. If the subscription rate is low, you'll need to position your subscription box more effectively on your site, or insert a "Receive Newsletter" checkbox on your Web Forms.
• Do a Google Search for sites similar to yours and analyze the marketing message put forth by each. Does your website present a unique value proposition? It's crucial that your Online Business stands out from the online crowd - establish a unique message and tone for your online presence, differentiating you from the next search result.

These are just a few examples of strengths or weaknesses you might find along the way. As you build up your SWOT analysis, list every aspect of your Online Business and ask yourself "Does this help grow my business?" Every question you cannot backup with analytical evidence and answer with a "Yes", list as a weakness - there's always room for improvement. The key here is to be completely honest with yourself, so you can move forward with a better understanding of your business.

Opportunities & Threats

Monitoring the Opportunities and Threats surrounding your Online Business will help uncover previously hidden external factors impacting on your online profitability. For example, there may have recently been an opening for online advertising on an industry-related site that you were not aware of. This is a great opportunity for your Online Business, allowing you to gain extra exposure and bring higher traffic to your site. On the other hand, a price increase for online advertisements might prove to be a threat, as it raises the cost-per-click. Do a daily scan of industry related sites or blogs and monitor advertising marketplaces like BuySellAds for advertising opportunities.

Here are some more ways to determine the Opportunities and Threats that may impact on your business:

• Research and connect with your community. Your fans are one of your greatest assets - so don't ignore them. Search social media sites and user forums to gain a better understanding of your customer community and how they communicate. Explore the possibilities, such as encouraging word-of-mouth marketing via referral programs and promo codes. Start a Twitter account, or provide community forums for your customers to express their opinions on.
• Investigate what your competitors are doing well and not doing well with a simple Addictomatic or StartPR search. A common threat to your Online Business is competitors better differentiating themselves from the rest of the industry you operate in. Make sure your online marketing message remains unique and doesn't lag behind.
• Ensure that you are a member of any industry-related online groups or associations. Joining groups and interacting with people in your industry is a great way to gain exposure and keep up to date with developments in your online business environment.
• Make sure you that you're taking full advantage of the technology powering your Online Business. As the web evolves, so does the software solution you use to run your website - that means updates containing new features that will better help you run your Online Business.

It's important that you keep a watchful eye on the unpredictable external environment you operate in, as the Opportunities and Threats facing your business are constantly changing.

What's Next

Conducting a SWOT analysis is the first step in building a successful Online Business. Once you've got a detailed list of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, you'll have a better understanding of where your business sits, and be able to craft a more effective online strategy.

Incorporating the results of your analysis in to your online strategy is easy and follows a basic formula:

• Strengths - leverage these to your advantage (ie. if you're doing something well, keep it up)
• Weaknesses - try to minimize or improve on these (ie. if it's broken, fix it)
• Opportunities - exploit any opportunities before your competitors do
• Threats - protect yourself against these

When developing your strategy, apply your SWOT findings to the 4 P's which we've discussed in a previous blog post.

In the future, it's a good idea to periodically conduct a SWOT analysis, so you can measure how you're doing and adapt accordingly.

Original article written by Brett Welch and published by the wonderful people at ThinkVitamin - find it here.

Starting an eCommerce business is becoming easier by the day. More business owners are looking to expand their online efforts to include eCommerce and build a true online business. Unfortunately, this presents a large set of challenges, not least of which is the threat of larger, better funded competitors online.

Thankfully, the key to successful eCommerce isn’t complicated. By planning ahead and considering your goals and your audience you will greatly increase your chances of success. Here’s three simple ways to make your online shop stand out from the crowd.

Step 1) Focus on Your Best Products

Selling your entire inventory online is unnecessary and often a mistake. Instead, sell a small sub-set of your products that you think may sell well online. For each product, provide a high level of detail describing the product. Follow up with some solid advice on how to choose the correct product for you, or provide expertise and background on the origins of the product.

This way, instead of building an impersonal warehouse-style shop online, you’re providing more of a boutique, - a personal experience that actually engages the customer and answers more of their questions than other shops do. Think of a supermarket versus a boutique fashion store - one simply fulfills their function, the other assists you to make the right buying choice with passion, knowledge and a personal connection.

Make a conscious decision to be the boutique; supermarket-style online stores are everywhere. Most products can already be found online, but there’s often a lack of detail and advice regarding the product. This can become an important and trust-building point of differentiation between you and your competitors.

This approach also has the added benefit of increasing your chance of ranking in search engines for the products you sell. Because you have plenty of content and information about the products in question, search engines will see you as an authority on that product. Search engine optimization is a whole other article but to put it simply: the more content you have that’s useful and relevant about the products you sell, the higher the chance your shop will rank in search engines when people search for the products on your site.

Here’s a quick to-do list to help you gain focus in your product lines.

• Position yourself. Write down clearly who you are and what you do, and use this as a reference for your decision making. Don’t be afraid to go niche: if you are the boiled, peppermint lolly expert in London, say so… and live up to it.
• Choose Your Products. Choose products that fit your positioning. You might sell strawberry licorice in your offline sweet shop, but boiled peppermint lolly experts wouldn’t sell strawberry anythings! Also, be conservative and choose your best selling or most unique, hard to find products. Your product mix can help you differentiate yourself online, so choose wisely and don’t be afraid to make a statement.
• Engage your customers. Allow them to leave comments on products. Write a blog about the heritage of boiled lollies. Show your passion and enable others to share their passion on your website.
• Write fun, interesting or useful content. Can you write a ‘how to’ article about your niche - How do you make boiled lollies at home? Can you write a ‘history of’, or a ‘when to use’, or a ‘how we make’ article? Be creative and be willing to share your knowledge - this sort of content helps with search engine rankings and it helps your customers identify you as an authority they can trust.

Once you’ve chosen your product line and your online inventory, it’s time to turn your attention to your potential audience. Online shoppers are a fickle bunch who will do a lot of research as they compare your offerings to others. But rather than be threatened by the comparison shopper, embrace them and use their research mindset to your advantage.

Step 2) Embrace the Comparison Shopper

Comparison shopping is the norm online; Google is probably the biggest price comparison service around! Not only do online store owners need to accept the comparison shopper mentality, savvy web merchants can leverage this mindset to great effect.

In most cases, however, you cannot (and should not) compete solely on price. Usually this is because you are not the cheapest option out there… and you don’t want to be. Your point of differentiation probably lies elsewhere, such as service, quality, or those little added extras that only you provide. In this case, you should engage in a simple type of proactive comparison rebuttal.

Doing so is quite easy. Simply tell your customers why you are different. Openly and honestly compare your offering with your competitors, either specifically by name (i.e “Bob’s Sweets offers…”) or generally (i.e “our competition offers…”). There are two options in presenting this sort of comparison.

• The Checklist. Here, you provide a checklist comparison chart - where you list you and your competitors and the features that each of you provide. This is easy to scan, digest and understand. It is extremely effective at conveying the differences between you and ‘the competition’. All you need to do is provide a handful of features or extras that you offer that others don’t. Naturally, do your research and make sure your comparison is accurate - especially if you do in fact name your competitors in your chart.
• The Pitch. Provide a written, non-enumerated web page outlining in prose form why your customers should choose you. Make it a page called ‘Our Difference’ or ‘Why 1000 people chose Boiled Lolly Corp last year’. Include customer testimonials with real photos of the customers.

So, how do you choose your approach? Simple: the first approach is a winner if your benefits are clear cut, logical and if your audience is primarily motivated by facts and figures rather than emotions. This varies from industry to industry, but generally you can lean on your intuition about your customers and what they’re going to be attracted to. Think about what ‘feels’ right for your product mix and your branding. For example, if you’re selling tools, computer parts and electronics, or if your branding is no-nonsense and direct, I’d suggest that the checklist approach probably ‘feels’ right.

The second approach will suit if your product or service’s advantages are more intangible, emotional or based on a ‘prestige’ mindset. This is because The Pitch approach is deliberately emotional. It avoids a logical break down of facts and uses testimonials to provide social proof. It should be convincingly eloquent - in many cases, you may want to hire a professional copywriter. It must appeal to the desires, perceptions, and even the social status that your product or service may bring. Again, this approach will feel right or wrong depending on your branding, your products and your services. If your point of differentiation revolves around emotional connections, good service, or a strong sense of heritage, then this is the choice for you.

Whatever your choice on how to do it, by openly and directly featuring why you are different you’re providing the comparison shopper with some food for thought. Most shoppers ostensibly compare prices, but they won’t always buy the cheapest option. The design of the store, the ‘feeling’ your website imparts and the overall delivery of your products or services does matter, and can make all the difference.

After embracing and then converting our comparison shoppers, it’s time to turn our attention inward to the most important part of any online business: you.

Step 3) Online Businesses, Not Websites

Many online merchants still think of their online store as a website that sells products. And yet, how many times have you heard business owners complain that their website and online shop were a waste of money - no-one visits and no-one buys? The truth is, their lack of success is due to a failure to see their website as something more than a brochure that one creates and then leaves online for customers to find.

The harsh reality is that there are billions of websites out there - how many of them are actually being seen by their intended audience? Building a website is simply the first important step towards growing an online business.

A store owner with this mindset treats the launch of their website as they would the opening of a new branch or office. Just like their bricks and mortar store, their online store is an ongoing business that needs attention.

Here’s a checklist to help you treat your online store as a business.

• Have you prepared a marketing plan? A website needs marketing to gain exposure, will you be buying advertising? Conducting search engine marketing? Or will you be writing articles for online article directories? How about press releases? Are there any complementary businesses that you can engage in cross-promotion with? How will you be analyzing results and targeting your messages? You’ll need answers to all these questions.
• How are you capturing your leads? Customer information such as names, phone numbers and email addresses are extremely valuable. Capturing this information gives you another chance to convert them into a buyer in the future. How are you capturing these details?
• How are you converting visitors? What’s your primary goal for your website? Every website must have a business-oriented goal. Is it a purchase in your online store? Is it filling in a ‘contact us’ form? Signing up to your email newsletter? Your website should be built around driving visitors to your goal.
• What's your strategy to bring customers back to your store? After a customer purchases from your site, or submits a ‘contact us’ form, you need a strategy to re-engage them with your business. Email marketing is a common way to do this, and is very effective for online stores. You can offer discounts, make product announcements or simply share the latest tips and tricks, the possibilities are wide and varied.

It’s Worth the Effort!

In 2009, more and more business owners will take their sales online - but how many of them will succeed, and how many will be wasting their money in a fruitless exercise? Ultimately, the key to success lie in careful thought, preparation and planning. There are no get-rich-quick schemes - committing to an online business is a significant undertaking that requires on-going effort from its owner.

However, it really is worth the effort. An online store is the most scalable, efficient and effective way to grow your business, and the opportunities, exposure and profits that it can bring to your business are significant. But remember, as with most things, a little effort and preparation goes a long way.

When engaging in Online Business, it's easy to lose focus due to the sheer expanse of the web. Without strategy, business owners often enter a downward spiral of over-promotion, brand dilution and ultimately, ineffective marketing.

Decades ago, business owners had it easier - they weren't dealing with the "rapid, volatile and discontinuous change" (Charles Handy) we face today. But they did have a strategic, focused way of managing their businesses. That's where the 4 P's come in. Collectively known as the "Marketing Mix", these are four ingredients for success that you must constantly balance and control when running your business.

The 4 P's are still relevant today, but need a bit of an update when applying them to the Online Business world. I'm going to take you through how to balance them Online:

Product

Offering static, catalogued products no longer cuts the mustard. With comparison shopping sites and huge online stores like Amazon, how do you compete on Product alone? Google has changed the way we buy online and your customers now start with the goal in mind (a product), then choose which supplier to buy from.

If you're offering an eProduct or an online service then you still have the power to innovate and stay ahead, but if you're selling tangible goods you need to be offering a valuable experience AND proving your credibility.

• Allow customers to offer feedback with comment forms on blogs, announcements and products. This builds social proof for your next round of customers to see, making them feel more compelled to do business with you.
• Offer a public forum where customers can discuss what they like/dislike about your product or service.
• Give your customers individual consideration and personalized attention through exceptional customer service.
• Prove that you're an expert by creating educational videos about your products. Give customers the detailed photo galleries they crave and articles that they want to read, in their quest to become more informed.

Price

Competing on price is a useless endeavour.

The web has introduced almost perfect competition to your now global market and you're looking for more business - but cutting your price is not the answer - it only serves to lower your brand image and the expectation of quality from customers.

As Seth Godin notes, "consumers are shopping for value not price, and value = benefit/price". In today's online world, the mental and emotional benefits often outweigh the monetary price; increase the benefits, and in turn justify your pricing. Here's how:

• Make it easy for customers to contact you using automated enquiry forms, set up a detailed FAQ, and take away any emotional stress with instructional articles or videos.
• Use email marketing to send out regular Newsletters, containing updates about your Online Business and some industry-specific hints or tips. Offering this unique content will not only set you apart from the crowd, but also serves to justify your pricing.

Place

Customers want to be able to browse and purchase your products or services online - it's plain and simple. Crafting an effective "Place" strategy is about making what you offer accessible at the right place, at the right time and that means having an effective plan for SEO and Social Marketing.

Having an online storefront means that every product you offer has a link which can be Tweeted, Dugg, returned as a Google search result, or blogged about - so in just three clicks, a customer can make a purchase. Read our blog post on promoting your products so they reach your customers desktops.

In addition, here are two ways you can optimize the shopping experience within your online shop:

• Display "Featured Products" on your front page, showcasing new deals that customers will be tempted to click on.
• Streamline the online shopping experience. From start to finish, present only the information required, keep clicks to a minimum, and make the "Checkout" button always visible.

Promotion

The Web provides your Marketing Team with a fully-loaded arsenal of promotional weaponary. The key is to use the sniper rifle instead of the shotgun - staying strategic and ensuring that your promotional efforts are improving your brand's position and reputation rather than detracting from them. Due to the open nature and lower cost of online promotion, Marketers must ensure they are not lured into the trap of over-promoting and hence degrading their online image. Promotion, as part of the overall Marketing Mix, should be targeted, undertaken in moderation, and balanced with the other Ps.

Here are some tactics for promoting your Online Business:

• Use an online CRM system to more accurately segment your customer database; targeting discounts, special offers and email marketing at warmer prospects who are more likely to take an interest.
• Use "below the line" marketing in the form of Social Media. Your online shop is now part of the wider web ecosystem and that means being present on all the major social networks so you can listen and engage with your customers. Converse 90% of the time and sell 10% of the time. Read our blog post on Integrating Twitter with your Online Business.
• Publish content - videos on Vimeo, photos on Flickr, articles via all the blogs out there - all leaving a trail back to your Online Business.

Mixing the ingredients

The best thing about this recipe is that it gives you the freedom to experiment, working out the unique balance of ingredients that suits your Online Business. The key is to fine tune your overall strategy so that each of the 4 P's work in harmony with the others.

This means that your Pricing strategy suits your Product; that the Place (your distribution channels) take into account the nature of your Product, and that the costs are covered by the Price you're charging; or that your Promotion is highlighting the Product benefits your customers actually want, and you're targeting this at the right market segment.

So get mixing, each day refining your Marketing Mix that little bit more. Over time, you'll craft your own recipe for success, with a unique balance of the 4 P's that suits you and your business.

DON'T PANIC - I'm not going to put you through a chapter of Kotler-esque theory, this is meant to be a bit of light reading. I promised that I'd return with an article on how marketing can work better with sales to improve the bottom line, so here we go:

Most of you would be small business owners working in organizations with 20 or less employees. If you're lucky you'll have a small sales team (say 5 employees) and a separate smaller marketing team (say 3 employees). The more typical scenario is that your sales team wears the marketing hat as well or you're really small and doing the both yourself, as the business owner. Whichever scenario you're in it's worth breaking down marketing and sales as separate functions with separate goals that are interconnected.

What does Closing the Loop mean?

You've often heard the saying "Sales reps are only as good as last months numbers" - the poor souls have nowhere to hide when they're not performing and all the glory when times are good. Meanwhile marketers have traditionally had trouble accurately measuring the results of their work. How do you measure the effect of advertising via billboards, print, etc? What about that coupon or discount campaign to drive more traffic. No wonder there was so much animosity between the two groups.

Closing the loop means both marketing and sales teams understand that they are working on a common sales pipeline and require a two-way flow of communication in order to maximize sales. Marketing's role (in both the short term and long term) is to use the means at their disposal to gather leads and decide which ones are the best for passing over to the sales team. Sales needs to carry on with converting these leads but also need to provide feedback as to which ones were the most valuable, what worked and what didn't.

The good news is that with all marketing moving online for small businesses (because of it's low cost and potentially high reach) it's turning into a much more empirical activity.

Strategies For Closing the Loop Between Marketing and Sales

Here are some simple points where marketing and sales can connect to achieve some quick wins. Of course it's still important for them to collaborate on longer term strategies which is the subject of a future blog post.

Detailed Email Marketing Reports

You're on track for sending out that 'special deals' newsletter on the 2nd Monday of every month to your clients and prospects but have you been measuring attention to the performance of your email marketing?

I'm not just talking about basic statistics like open rates and number of recipients. You should be diving in to find out:

• who opened your newsletter,
• what links they've clicked on
• what actions they've made on your site as a result.

Utilize this information by exporting the data and building lists of your most highly engaged readers to pass on to the Sales team for chasing up. You're adding an immense amount of value by presenting the sales team directly with the 'low-hanging fruit' that you KNOW have been reading and clicking your emails rather than making them call all recipients in the hope they've engaged.

Customized Web Forms

With website design and content controlled by Marketing, it's their role to customize customer inquiry forms. Here are 3 tips on how to generate better leads for your sales using webforms:

• Attach forms to particular products or web-app items in the sidebar so the customer doesn't need to click through to a separate 'Contact Us Page'
• Add custom fields that qualify the lead (such as budget, purchasing timeframe etc) that would collect valuable data for your Sales team to use in their follow-up when compared to a standard form on an 'Contact Us' page.
• In your customized forms give multiple choice answers (with radio buttons) so the customer can quickly choose the most appropriate options without having to type.

The sales team here needs to tell the marketing what information will help them follow-up on a warm lead.

Targeted and Focused Landing Pages

It's the Marketing's job to be putting out advertising both in the form of SEM and Banner Ads on the web. You're able to measure your clickthrough rates and cost per click, but what happens after that? Where's your traffic going?

Clickthrough and CPC are meaningless if these visitors aren't turning into leads for your Sales team. When you're spending money on expensive advertising to drive traffic then you also need to control that traffic when it arrives by directing them landing pages with focused messages and clear calls-to-action - whether it be to:

• register for site membership,
• register a free seminar or white paper
• submit an inquiry
• make an online purchase. 

As a marketer you need prove that your campaigns are delivering ROI and there's no better way to do this than by collecting leads through a landing page and them handing them on a silver platter to the sales team. The sales team should then provide feedback to the marketing team on the conversion rate for the leads collected from this advertising/landing-page campaign.

Sales and Marketing Can Work Together!

Creating a synergy between Marketing and Sales is always a tricky business. Just remember; both teams are working on different sections of the same pipeline so they need to provide feedback to each other to maximize throughput. By following the steps outlined here, marketers will be able to provide higher quality leads for the sales team and precisely measure and improve the results of their campaigns which helps them 'close the loop'.

Have you noticed that it's deeply ingrained in our society to define ourselves and others by what we do and who we work for. Conversations with strangers almost always follow these 3 steps:

1. "Hi, my name's Nigel, nice to meet you. What's your name?"
2. "The weather's pretty lousy today isn't it?"
... Uncomfortable Pause ...
3. "So, what do you do for a living? Where do you work?"

and that's the Bus-stop/1st-date/Distant-relative variety of conversation. When you go to 'networking' events you can even dispense with step 2 altogether!

So I'm talking to an older long-lost relative at a family gathering and the inevitable question pops up:

"I'm a Marketer at GoodBarry" I unashamedly respond but at the same time secretly wishing I was a respectable web designer.
"Good What?!?! And what exactly does a 'Marketer' do??" the old Aunt interrogates me suspiciously like Colonel Klebb would...

Here's the answer in blog post format for easier digestion:

Basic Marketing For Your Online Business

The first image that comes to peoples minds when they hear the word 'Marketing' is flashy prime-time TV ads for BigCorp (that's a Jason-Calacanism) made by people who take extra long lunches with international ad agencies and never seem to do much that's actually useful.

(Un)fortunately your average Online Business user isn't likely to have 7 helicopters, let alone 7 employees. She's got a small team and a small budget but still needs to market her business and the same 4 rules that define marketing still apply:

Rule 1: Make People Aware that Your Business Exists

You've got a beautifully designed site with a heap of useful content on your products, pricing and company. What's next? You can use these 3 approaches to get the word out about your new site:

1. Have you listed in Google's Local Business center? You'll need to be spending some time searching for reputable online directories relevant to your locale and industry. As an example restaurant owners need to get themselves listed on their local online restaurant review site. Spend an hour crafting a paragraph about your offering then submit it to the top 10 directories in your list. The best directories are the online communities where people can talk in a forum or leave comments.
   

2. Speaking of online communities and forums, you'll also need to become an active participant who offers expert advice to those who ask for feedback and opinions. You never know who you meet and you'll get inspiration for new content from being part of the conversation. As you make more friends online you'll be able to show people your site and leave a discreet URL in your avatar.

3. Do you know other complementary businesses that you can cross promote with? It's always nice to have a 'Friends of' section on your site where you can mutually list each other. You can also give testimonials to your suppliers and vendors to get listed on their site with a link back to yours.

Rule 2: Appear At The 'Right Spot, Right Time'

"@*&#&%!! my Goggomobile just broke down again!" - back in the 1990s, TV ads would've had me pulling out the yellow pages to find a mechanic to fix it. But it's 2009 and for the past 6 years, 90% of the population will have had a thought process that goes like this if their Goggomobil broke down:

1. Google for a Goggomobil mechanic
2. If you aren't happy with the results you'd call your friends and ask for a recommendation
3. Still no idea? You'd start asking on Facebook/Twitter or researching on Del.icio.us/Stumbleupon (this is a more recent phenomenon)

Search, Word-of-mouth or, a combination of the two in the form of social media are the most powerful tools you have for appearing at the right place and right time for your customers. You need SEO and not the witch-doctor meta-tag stuff that 'experts' recommend - basic 'SEO' simply boils down to having well structured informative content on your site that's continuously updated. Produce quality content prolifically. Doing so gives people more reason to tweet about you or stumble upon your site, eventually you'll build up organic links.

What about your double-opt-in email newsletters? Are you sending those out monthly with useful information? Did you put a 'Subscribe to Receive News and Tips' button on the front of your site to capture only those visitors who want to hear from you? Did you put a 'Follow Me' button on your site, how about a 'Digg It', a 'Stumble This' or a 'Reddit' link, make it a 1-click process for your users to spread the word about you.

Rule 3: Manage Your Online Reputation and Your Brand

Despite all the glamorous movie depictions of BigCorp marketing, branding does not equal cool logo design & corporate slogan. These things do help but there is definitely no chicken and egg question here - great products and exceptional customer service beget strong brands not vice versa.

When you're working at the 7 employee level, what matters is not your logo or slogan, the most valuable brand building exercise you can do is get 'social proof' from your past customers. Do you have customer testimonials on your site? Have you published case studies on your past customer successes?

People won't only leave feedback on your site, there's customer review sites like GetSatisfaction, people will Tweet and then there's also a plethora of traditional forums and blogs where your customers are ranting or raving. Keep tabs on this and stay involved by helping the ranters and thanking the ravers. Here are two tools to help you listen in on the online conversations:

Rule 4: Live Up To Your Promise!

You've got those customers clicking through to your site - you've traversed the web to leave signposts to your new Online Business, you've reached out to those who need what you offer and you've reassured those coming with others' testimonials. Now you'll have to live up to the promise you've made otherwise your efforts will backfire. When people arrive at your site will they be able to find what they're looking for?

• If you have an e-Store are your catalogs and products easy to browse and search? Those monthly specials you wrote about in your email newsletters, can your customers find those?
• Visitors have arrived because they're looking for more information, is this easy to find? Is your site navigation logically laid out?
• You said you would regularly update your blog and send out a monthly newsletter - do you?
• Can your visitors find out ways to contact you for more information on your site?

So what are you doing to market your Online Business today? In our next post we'll be back with the Guide to Online Business Sales and talk about closing the loop between marketing and sales so that they work with each other rather than against each other.

It's no secret Twitter has reached the tipping point in a big way. It's February 2009 and I can't surf three links without running into yet another blog post or article with the phrases 'Social Media' and 'Twitter' appearing at least 32.56 times on the same page. Twitter's spreading like an algal bloom on phosphorous!

Oh, by the way, before we get down to business can I interest you in a 'How Twitter will Transform your Business into a Super Powerful <martial art of choice> Flying Pigeon' article? Here's a blogroll:

Go Viral On Twitter - Copy Blogger Twitter For Business - Duct Tape Marketing 50 Ideas On Using Twitter For Business - Chris Brogan How To Grow Your Twitter Following - Search Engine Guide 10 Awesome Ways To Integrate Twitter With Your Website - Nettuts Ten Brutal Twitter Tips - Science Text Twitter Fail - How To Lose Friends Quickly & Tarnish Your Personal Brand In 140 Characters - Satisfaction 2.0 How To Use Twitter For Marketing & PR- Hub Spot 8 Useful Tip To Become Successful With Twitter - Blog of Mr Tweet etc etc etc.

Everybody's getting on the Twitter bandwagon and partying like it's 1999. There's no possible way I can ignore or resist the wave of hype so I'm going to join the other 1652 social media marketers out there and serve my addition to the Twitter soup on the web with this manifesto:

4 Easy Ways To Integrate Twitter with GoodBarry

1) 'Tweet This' Button On Your Content (Articles, Blog Posts, Announcements)

Thanks to free Twitter tools like TwitThis.com we don't have to learn how to become web designers or learn the Twitter API to be able to add a TwitThis button. Encourage your visitors to tweet your new content just by copying and pasting these few lines of Javascript to your WYSIWYG editor in HTML mode.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://s3.chuug.com/chuug.twitthis.scripts/twitthis.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write('<a href="javascript:;" onclick="TwitThis.pop();"><img src="http://s3.chuug.com/chuug.twitthis.resources/twitthis_grey_72x22.gif" alt="TwitThis" style="border:none;" /></a>');
</script>

2) 'Follow Me' Button on your Site Pages or Template

Did you know a "Follow Me" button is nothing more than a fancy button that you can download for free from sites like Limeshot (181 more buttons at TwiTip) that links back to your Twitter homepage. On your Twitter page, visitors can click on 'Follow Me' if they like your site and what you stand for in your tweets.

To add one of these to your GoodBarry site download a button and upload it to the /images folder of your site. On your page or template WYSIWYG editor copy and paste these lines of code substituting your image file name and twitter username for parts highlighted in red.

<a href="http://twitter.com/your_twitter_name"><img src="/Images/twitter-image-name.png" alt="Follow @your_twitter_name" style="float:left; padding-right:10px;" width="80" height="60" border="0"/></a>

3) Adding the Twitter Widget (Really Easy)

Twitter has its own widget which you can add to your site - just go to http://twitter.com/widgets/profile_flash_widget. It acts like a peephole from your website to your Twitter account displaying your most recent tweets and allowing people to follow. Again it's just a matter of copying and pasting the code provided by Twitter and pasting it into your GoodBarry editor then saving and publishing.

4) Connecting Your RSS Feeds To Twitter

If you're using RSS on your GoodBarry site you can connect it to your Twitter by using Twitterfeed.com. You'll need to create a new twitter feed as shown below and copy and paste the RSS Feed URL from your GoodBarry site to Twitter Feed.

Getting the GoodBarry RSS URL - Go to Website->RSS Channels, click on a channel and you'll see this action box:

Twitter Apps and Plugins Galore!

There must be 100s if not 1000s of 3rd party Twitter apps and widgets out on the web. We've only scratched the surface with what you can do with GoodBarry and Twitter. However, the general principle will be the same - the application or widget you're using will provide you with some code that you can copy and paste into your site and GoodBarry makes that easy. Just one warning - be wary of Twitter apps that require you to enter your username and password, some of these are phishing for your password. Do your research first.

Why Isn't There a GoodBarry Twitter Account?

We haven't set up a corporate GoodBarry Twitter account (that's not to say we won't in the future) because we believe Twitter is about personal conversations between groups of individuals.

The problem with corporate Twitter accounts is that they make it difficult to foster conversations and build a real community. Once you use a company logo for an avatar and only post on topics related to the business, you've ejected the personable out of Twitter and replaced it with the faceless corporate you were trying to get away from in the first place by using Social Media.

What we do at GoodBarry is empower our employees to tweet and that's how Twitter should work for any business. You need individual personalities from the CEO down to the janitor representing the business that other tweeps can connect with. Given a set of loose guidelines:

• Your tweets need to pass the newspaper test
• Don't shamelessly plug your own company, tout your products. In a nutshell don't spam!
• Don't tweet contrary to your company if you're explicitly affiliated by employment.

Each of your tweeting employees can build their own personal Twitter community for whom they are providing value (retweeting, posting funny, helpful links, answering questions etc) and developing personal connections with. Every so often you'll be able to weave in work related tweets which is now much more palatable because the connection is personal.

If you'd like to follow, here's the 4 Tweeps working at GoodBarry and 3 friends of GoodBarry who tweet regularly:

@eddy_chan - writer of this post. Not-so-random fact: 'marketing' appears more than any other tag in my followers' bios. Follow at your peril... @larzshinobi - the pixel pusher who loves to watch giant robots smashing into each other, you'll get an eclectic mix of quirky tweets from him. @brettw - Co-creator of GoodBarry & eccentric oddball. Also marketer & entrepreneur, but mostly oddball. @twisty7867 - one of our hotshot developers at GoodBarry. His tweets are geek central with all sorts of acronyms mere mortals don't understand but it keeps his posts down to 140 characters. GoodBarry Resellers to follow: @PunkLogic - Barry's mate from tropical Queensland, Australia. He's made it a mission to bring everything Web2.0 to businesses and use GoodBarry as the platform. Follow for implementation help and advice. @jasontinnin - the GoodBarry guru at Simpleflame.com. He's also a passionate internet entrepreneur who's working on some amazing projects at PixelIQ. Follow to keep posted! (Otherwise he's also good for advice on GoodBarry) @cesarkeller - @jasontinnin's partner-in-crime. As the Art/Creative director at PixelIQ he's responsible for a large number beautiful sites hitting the web. Follow to find out how to juggle fatherhood and web design!

Over the past few months, we've been experiencing a tremendous period of growth here at GoodBarry. It has been exciting to see so many business owners and web designers discover and use our software; we appreciate your attention and time. You make our business tick - thank you.

We believe very much in what we do: enabling you to build and run Online Businesses, Not Websites. It's great to see that others believe in it too, and have come to join our movement to make ecommerce and online business so much more effective and customer focused.

That's also why it's so heartbreaking when we let you down. Recently there have been occasions when we've slipped on our service level agreements and have taken longer than promised to reply to support requests. We know you're running a business; we know you need our help from time to time; we know your customers are important to you, too. We are here to help and by and large we're succeeding in doing so; generally we're still responding within our advertised timeframes. But still, we know we've slipped. To those affected, we're truly sorry.

The good thing is that we're learning and we're listening. I'm talking to customers each day, as is Bardia and the rest of the team. Thankfully we're already making great strides. There's exciting things on the horizon.

More Support Engineers On The Way!

We're on the lookout now for 2 more Support Engineers to join us in our San Francisco office. We've already started interviews and seen some good candidates, so we're hoping to bolster the team really soon so we can get back to you faster than ever. I'll post again when we finalize those hires.

More Video Training

We're embarking on a comprehensive plan to provide a series of videos explaining some of the features you're asking the most questions about. This will mean that you can get answers in your own time, in a quick and easy to understand way.

Tuning and Performance

The GoodBarry system architecture is getting better every day. As load increases our challenges change, but our system engineers and developers are working around the clock in Sydney and San Francisco, identifying areas of improvement and rolling them out. We've already seen some significant wins in this area, and that will continue.

That's just a quick-sketch picture of what's going on behind the scenes here at GB. We're gearing up so that we can continue to provide the same great level of service you expect - from both our software and our support team.

If you have any feedback for us, or ideas to improve - we love to hear from you. Just drop me a line at brett (at) goodbarry.com, or find me on twitter.

"You're too expensive."

Sound familiar? I'd bet that every business owner has heard a customer say this, be it true or not.

Before we dismiss this and start justifying that our price is just right - or even worse, discounting - let's think about the last customer who told you that you were too expensive. What were they thinking? Why? How could you have changed their minds?

This is a question that gnaws at the mind of many business owners, and, when confronted, the natural reaction is to make arguments as to why you aren't overpriced. You'll make comparisons. You'll draw analogies. You'll give discounts. And maybe you'll ultimately win the customer over. Hooray, and well done. You've got the sale.

But here's the not-so-obvious bit: your customer made a decision about the price your product should be... before they actually learned your price.

In other words, their price was set before your price was revealed. They made a decision about what they were willing to pay before you told them what you wanted them to pay.

And that means that you could have changed their minds before they even saw the price.

A Traveler's Expectations

A couple of years back I lived in Beijing for about 6 months while studying. As with most travelers who find themselves in country where they have a currency advantage, I found that many everyday things were much more affordable. Catching a taxi cost around a tenth of what I'd usually pay; eating out was similarly inexpensive. With less walking and more luxurious eating habits, my waistline started expanding pretty quickly!

My perception of what was expensive and what was cheap was set by my expectations of what I'd be paying at home - what I was used to paying for the same service or product.

It wasn't long before my perception began to change. I began to evaluate things more natively, and Chinese prices became their own benchmarks. My thinking became: "this restaurant is expensive compared to the one around the corner" rather than "this meal is so cheap compared to my local noodle joint back in Sydney".

This set up me up for a terrible shock when I got back home, since everything was suddenly insanely expensive! Over time this feeling fades and a $10 meal is no longer highway robbery. But the point remains - my price expectations changed because of my environment. How much I was willing to pay went up, then down, then up again... all based on my perception of value and worth set by my environment.

So - what are your customer's perceptions of value? What are they comparing your product to, and what experiences might they be drawing on?

Welcome to Wal-Mart

When you go to Wal-Mart, you expect low prices. Everyday low prices is their mantra; their advertising emphasises this endlessly, or once did. Walk into one of their cavernous stores and the endless aisles with their intentionally not-yet-unpacked pallets of goods on sale scream to you that you're in a warehouse. You're one step closer to the supplier. You're cutting out the plush middle man. You're saving money.

This is a well crafted image that gives you the feeling that you're being frugal. Doing battle with the crowds and walking half a kilometer back to your car translates to saving money. Your expectation at Wal-Mart is that prices will be low because of the environment you're in, the experience you have and because their branding and marketing tells you that they will be.

Luxury stores are the exact opposite - spacious and clean, with neatly spaced merchandise and wide racks made of sturdy materials. Each bag perches on a pedestal arranged just-so. The store looks and feels pricey, the staff are insanely fashionable... you already know that the products here aren't cheap.

How is your marketing and your store's look and feel conditioning your customer's expectations of price?

What's that?

You point at a strange looking wheeled object in your friend's loungeroom. You ask your friend:
"What's that?"
And they respond:
"That, my friend, is the most advanced vacuum cleaner in the world; completely automatic and cleans the house itself. It's a Roomba."

Now you're already wondering how much it costs; you want one. And who wouldn't want a Roomba, they're freaking cool.

But what if your friend answered differently, saying:
"That's some vacuum cleaner my mum got me for my birthday. It's a little spooky and doesn't work properly. Who wants a little robot running around their house pretending to vacuum things?"

You might disagree with your friend's statement about robots, because robots are awesome. But the lack of a testimonial or recommendation in that statement devalues the product. The way that you as a marketer or you as a user talks and presents your product makes a significant impact on perceived value.

How are you talking about your products? In your marketing materials, on your website, on the phone... are you actively using words that convey the value?

Your Checklist: Expectations, Images, Words.

My three stories above illustrated these three core points. Let me recap.

Expectations. Your expectations about a product and it's price or quality are shaped by your experiences with comparable things.

Image. The look and surroundings of a product affect the perceived value of the product.

Words. The words and attitude you and your customers take when describing the product affect the perceived value of the products.

That's it. If people are saying you're too expensive, then you've messed up on one (or all) of the above three.

A Note on Expectations

You'll notice that expectations can be a sticky one; what if my customers have paid $2 for an apple all their life, but I want to charge them $10?

This is almost another topic entirely, but this is where good old marketing wisdom kicks in: think about positioning. This isn't a $10 apple. It's an organic, GMO free, fresh-from-the-farm-picked-by-my-mate-joe $10 delicacy. And you're displaying them on a nice wooden table, in a moulded recycled carton, shining from the fine mist you've just sprayed on them... now that's a $10 apple.

A Final Word: Be Honest.

If you set the wrong expectations, or build the wrong Image, or wield the wrong words, it will come back to bite you. After your customers buy, they'll be disappointed. And that ultimately means you lose.

Which is why I'm truly not - and wouldn't ever - advocate building the wrong expectations so that you can charge more. That sort of strategy may yield a short term gain, but using good marketing to cover up a less glamorous reality is not a business strategy - it's a con. And that's not what I'm suggesting you do at all! :)

I was thinking today about the uphill battle that many small business owners face. They're fighting for business against larger, better funded competitors. How can you win?

In war, you can amass the biggest army and throw your soldiers at the enemy. The bigger the enemy is, the more soldiers you'll need - but hey, it works. Mostly.

In business, if you want to solve a problem, you can throw money at it. The bigger the problem, the more money you'll need to throw - but hey, it works. Mostly.

Big companies tend to throw money at problems, just like big guys are more likely to muscle their way through conflict. Little guys prefer to talk their way out of conflicts, like little companies attack their competitors with smart and efficient marketing.

When I say "marketing" I'm not talking about advertising and spending money on billboards. I'm talking about having a conversation with your customers; about making deals with like minded companies; about letting your customers spread the word for you; about making your product that much better than anyone elses; about making your service shine and delight.

History shows us that the biggest armies can fall to superior strategy and tactics; think Henry V and the battle of Agincourt. History also shows us that diplomacy and negotiation can achieve better outcomes than any war, and hence the saying that "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Well, I say Marketing is mightier than Money.

Right now, times are tough. And I've heard many business owners wish that they had more funding, or the resources of their larger competitors, so that they could weather the storm more comfortably.

That's fair. But the true winners out of this are going to be the smart, little companies who figure out that this a storm that they can talk themselves out of.

In this climate, smart marketing is a thousand times better than deep pockets.